India's Demands on Mumbai Attacks Unreasonable

Posted by Aneela Shahzad
on January 22, 2015

Interior Minister Rehman Malik had given verbal assurance to his Indian counterpart Sushil Kumar Shinde that India will be allowed to examine evidence and question the masterminds, currently in jail, behind the Mumbai attacks against a request raised by Shinde on the sidelines of SAARC Home Ministers’ Conference at Maldives, in September.

It is not that the Interior Minister can be ever trusted for delivering what he promises, after more than 4 years of flimflam he has been playing on Pakistani public, and he can be expected to do exactly ‘not’ what he says; but it is an alarming reminder to the sensible ones that India is up to its dirty tricks again.

It must be reiterated here that in the past 4 years the Mumbai case has taken several turns and twist between the courts and officials of India. It is a surprise that it took full 3 days for the Indian police, thousands of Indian army soldiers, Black Cat commandos, Special Forces, as well as elite fighting units from South Africa and Israel to evacuate the hotel, only letting 166 die and over 300 injured, before freeing it from a meager number of gunmen. But what is more surprising is that the same Mumbai had been a target of continuous terror attacks since 1993 and the Indian authority has never come to the finale that its own investigation and security agencies have to be brought to the court.

In the prevailing air of insecurity in the city, an unprepared police and un-vigilant intelligence were responsible for the security of the residents. As the Indian public had faced such insecurity; in the case of the Mumbai attacks, it was a matter of least effort that the Indian government would have taken every precaution in compiling the case against this heinous act of terror, to provide the least console to their people. But as it happened, after the initials impotency of the state machinery, only the same was added in the forwarding of the trial in the court.

Due to the lameness of the police and investigation agencies, several illegalities were committed by those involved in compiling the case. Just to appease their higher officials, several loopholes were hastily allowed to enter the case because of which as the case unfolded most of the arrested had to be released and TauseefRehman, Fahim Ansari and Sabaudin and Mukhtar Ahmed were allowed to disappear. The reasons being that at the wake of the attacks, India did not go into a serious investigation of what really happened and who really did it all, instead they made a start by putting allegations to one end in Pakistan and to another end in Kashmir; from Lashkar e Taiba to JamaatudDawwa.

And when all allegations came under court scrutiny, pieces started falling one after the other. It was just like writing the answer first and making the whole sum above it in reverse, try doing that yourself and you will find the thick soup India found itself in.

This was the reason that when the commission from Pakistan reached India to share information and question Kasaab and the witness, they were denied not only their access but even any questioning with the magistrate who had taken Kasaab’s statements and the doctors who had treated him or had taken autopsies of the other terrorists.

In August this year, the Indian court has sentenced death to AjmalKasaab, the case is concluded, all reviews and appeals are exhausted and now Kasab’s mercy petition is in the President’s office. At this stage when the courts have concluded, those found not responsible have been released; the Indian machine has failed to bring out anything as solid evidence against anyone in Pakistan or Kashmir, logic fails as to why the Indians want to send the NIA commission to question the 7 people detained in Pakistani prisons, for involvement in the Mumbai attacks. The fact is that the Pakistani court have concluded that no accusation can be laid on these men until India cooperates with them in terms of information and access to solid proof regarding the scene of crime and the perpetrators, and until such time their cases have been adjourned.

The NIA authorities that India wants to send is not the one that has investigated the Mumbai case in India, but a newly formed one. So the game India is playing goes like this; let the foul play to the full; use international media tilted to their side to blow the whistle on Pakistan; blot out all information when Pakistan wants it; and come crying for access to what little clues Pakistan has. Surely this one sided approach is not meant to get to the truth, it is only intended to fish the story in the Pakistani grounds, so that anything can be grounded out of thin air, maybe not to prove anything, but just to find another chance to malign and terrorize Pakistan through international media.

One should also understand that the only reason the Pakistani side caught and kept the suspects in the Adyiyala jail was international pressure; especially the US pressure that our corrupt Government cannot resist and in the appeasement of which it is not finding to let these men who are detained without any evidence and proper charges go free. Pakistan did all this in good faith and intention to help reveal the truth. At such a difficult time between international pressure and the pressure of losing the confidence of its own people, Pakistan managed to stand rightfully at the high moral ground, open-heartedly admitting that whatever India is alleging it to have done may by chance be true; and that the real thing is to detect and root-out the source of terror, whether in our soil or theirs.

Pakistan gracefully admitted to the possibility, but once it tried to share information and evidence on equality and practicality bases, India started shying away. India did not show the grace of revealing all evidence and data; perhaps it had some things to hide. To the Pakistani official involved in the case, it seemed obvious enough that India was not taking any serious action, neither in facilitating Pakistan nor did it intend to come to a logical end which may have satisfied all parties and justice, in its true sense, would have been served.

Still we must appreciate India’s want for justice and probe for truth, only we need to remind India that it has many, many cases within its own borders, that are cases of terrorism, cases of international interest, cases of human rights that need to be followed and brought to just conclusion.

One of many such cases is the case of the Samjhota Express. Samjohta express incident which was an open act of terrorism, attempted on Indian soil; its planners, executioners and target all were in India; the target however were the innocent tourists from a neighboring country Pakistan. The criminals were arrested and it was proven that Col Parohit and his extremists org was behind the attack. But as yet there have been no charges, no challans and no death sentence for these abhorrent creatures pacing the earth. Interestingly the person who was in charge of the Samjhota express case, HemantKarare, with whom the India officials were not very happy as he intended to present proofs against Col Parohat, was killed in the first few hours of the Mumbai incident.

Is this not the true face of tolerant, secular and peace loving India? India has defied the sane voices of its own society for the last 5 years, in not bringing justice to the criminals just because the targeted and brutally killed were Muslims, and from neighboring Pakistan, on a express service started on the theme of ‘Samjhota’ just like todays theme of the ‘AmanKeAshha’ which will surely prove to be like the Shamjhota Express, in due time.